If you spend any significant time tracking PGA Tour usage data, the history of the Titleist driver is familiar. Many professionals play them – some because they get paid, many more because they want to. You are not the brand of the most played drivers on the Tour for seven years running without participants from both camps. History of fairway wood? This is a conversation with a little wrinkle.
On tour and at retail, this category has largely been the domain of TaylorMade and Callaway for some time now. Which means Titleist’s main goals in the fairway wood space are straightforward, if not exactly simple: keep your players on the court and pick up some free agents wherever possible. This goes for players who play the game for a living and those of us who play to get money off our friends.
This is both a challenge and an opportunity. And it’s worth noting that a pair of boot cut jeans is very similar to a pair of boot cut jeans. Golfers wear a gem for at least a few presidential administrations. Even the best players in the world aren’t cycling through the fairway woods with the same regularity as drivers or irons, meaning the window to meaningfully change the scenery doesn’t open as often.
However, when you do open up, you better have something worth saying.
The title GTS wants to say a word.
A quick note before we dive in
For those in the know, GTS freeway woods are Tom Bennett’s swan song. And while that’s unlikely to ever be the answer to a clue of danger, for those of us loyal to the cheap wood, a brief clap is in order. Like Seinfeld: leave on a high note.
So what exactly is GTS trying to solve?
The main objective is one you’ve heard before, though the execution here is worth paying attention to: lower the CG to increase launch and decrease spin, while maintaining ball speed. The simple version is that Titleist wanted to keep the CG as far forward as it has been—but the tricky part is that moving the weight requires first finding the weight and then finding its location.
Enter the updated Thermoform body structure. By swapping some steel for carbon in the form of a new wraparound crown—a crown that extends beyond the top of the crown and to the toe side of the clubhead—Titleist freed up some free mass. Steel is heavy, carbon is light, and when you make that trade in the right places, you end up with precious grams to spend elsewhere.
According to Metalwood Director of Development Stephanie Luttrell, the repositioned CG of the GTS is the lowest heading ever achieved in a free wood. In fact, the initial prototypes apparently started too high—a problem most fairway lumberjack engineers wish they had. Titleist dialed the CG down a bit (without over-indexing the forgiveness) to sit in the sweet spot with more speed, better launch and more consistent spin.
That’s the balance beam in action, folks.
Goodbye weight track. Hello, flat weights
If you remember the arrival of the Active Recoil Channel in the TSi line, you’ll appreciate the logic here. Movable weight tracks are great for fitters and adjustability, but they require support structures, and those structures have mass. Mass. You can’t move. Which means the track itself was putting a ceiling on how low Titleist could push the CG.
You may also recall the flat toe weights that debuted on GT hybrids – something of a litmus test to see if builders can and will use them and if they can deliver meaningful performance changes. That experiment clearly produced useful data, because the flat weight system is now a key design principle of the GTS freeway line.
The result is still full left/right adjustment, but without the weight trace. Poof. Gone. And because the weights now sit in the heel and toe, the MIA also gets a little positive kick.
According to Luttrell, removing the track also allowed Titleist to expand the impact face area in the heel and toe of the GTS2 and GTS3.
“A player who abuses it a little bit more towards the heel or the toe, they’re going to get more off the face. They’re going to get more out of that L-Cup.” Titleist also incorporated appropriate input from the GT line and flattened the standard reach angle by half a degree in the neutral position. Details matter, folks.
The L-Cup face remains a staple
The face of the Forged L-Cup turns and if you need a visual, think of the letter “L”: the ledge part wraps around the leading edge and connects to the sole. It’s not a unique construction across the industry, though the main benefit is that it allows Titleist to use a stronger material to pair with the lower CG for improved performance on low-center shots (which seems to be where I come into contact most often).
Silver face: High contrast, higher risk
You will immediately notice the face. It’s silver—smooth, high-contrast, and completely different from the darkened aesthetic you’ve come to expect.
Here’s how it happened.
JJ Van Wezenbeeck, Senior Director of Player Promotions and fitting guru of the tournament staff, had a theory. He slapped the PVD finish on a freeway GT, leaving a silver face, and asked a simple question: Do you see more loft? The answer was yes. The following theory was that if you see more loft at address, you will naturally create a slightly more negative angle of attack, which, all things being equal, should result in more contact with the center face.
He set out to test his theory, but the product team had no expectations that this pursuit would amount to much. But after much formal and informal testing, the theory stuck. And like many other product attributes, what starts out as a potentially small-scale solution on Tour proves beneficial to all golfers and makes its way into the retail offering.
It’s not a claim we’ve tested (yet), but early internal results suggest a modest decrease in angle of attack with the high-contrast face – think a degree or two. And there are very few golfers for whom a larger downswing isn’t beneficial.
However, there is a practical wrinkle worth noting. Removing the PVD finish actually increases the cost of production. Titleist didn’t raise prices to account for that, which means this is one of those industry quirks where less costs more. (Raw wedge fans, you know the conundrum.)
The greater consideration may be purely aesthetic. It’s a departure. It can be off-putting at first glance to some consumers (yours truly included) or it can be just as intriguing. This is the danger. Titleist is betting that where there’s form, there’s certainly function, and that once golfers get over the initial surprise, the performance will be compelling.
Another thing on the visual front: the “left problem”. When I see more loft on a fairway wood, I usually see more “left” – a face that looks pointed to the left of the target before I pick up the club again. It’s a bad result before the pace starts. Titleist addressed this directly in the face progression and visual stance at address on each model.
Which model is right for you?
Face height is your best starting point. The GTS3, at 35mm, offers a deeper face that tends to accommodate steeper angles of attack. The GTS2, at 33mm, is shallower and better for cleaners. (Based on my fit data, I’m firmly in the cleaning camp, so the GTS2 had my attention.)
An important lesson taken directly from the GT1 3 tournament: the best and fastest players don’t always have the steepest angles of attack, and some of them actually prefer a shallower face at address. So the GTS2 has the same face height as the GT1. It’s not just people with disabilities who need maximum release. Don’t sleep on it.
The GTS3, meanwhile, now includes a 21-degree option, a nice addition that speaks to the continued popularity of fairway woods and expands its range as a hybrid alternative for the right player.
My $0.05
I’ve had some time with the freeways GTS and there are real improvements here: lower CG, more consistent launch, better terrain interaction. The flat weight system is a significant step forward in accommodating flexibility without the massive penalty of the old track. The silver face will divide opinion, but the performance rationale behind it is sound.
The real question – and it’s the only one that matters in this segment – is whether the GTS can convince anyone to give up a competing product. This is a high bar. TaylorMade and Callaway have been running this category for a reason, and players who have found their fairway wood don’t give it up easily. (Boot cut jeans, remember?)
What I will say is this: If you’re already a Titleist loyalist and have been waiting for an inexpensive wood that looks like it belongs in the same conversation with your driver equipment, the GTS is worth a serious look. And if you’re a free agent who hasn’t found the right wood yet, GTS gives you more reasons than ever to add the Titleist to your shortlist.
Will moving the needle in testing and logging be enough? Stay tuned for the most wanted test results later in the year.
But Titleist’s intent is clear, and the execution around the GTS is thoughtful and well-articulated.
Price and availability
Pre-sale starts on May 13th. Full retail availability June 11th.
- GTS Fairway: $399
- GTS Premium Fairway: $599
Featured shafts include Project X Titan Black and MCA Tensei 1K White, Blue and Red with Rip Technology. Premium shaft options include Graphite Design Tour AD DI, VF and FI.
For more information, visit Titleist.com.
